So I finally decided to take the plunge and root my HTC desire.  It was easier than I thought it would be.

Don’t do this if you need to retain your phone’s warranty.  Also, if it doesn’t work, you’re on your own, so if you’re not comfortable with the Android platform, rooting your phone probably isn’t a good idea.

Here is what I did:

  1. Download the unrevoked software.  You’ll also need the HBOOT driver if as I did, you do the rooting on a Windows machine.
  2. On your phone: Settings -> Applications -> Unknown sources (tick) – then move intoDevelopment -> USB debugging (tick) and Stay awake (tick).
  3. If you have HTC Sync installed, open Windows Task Manager, look for a process calledHTCVBTServer.exe and kill it (if you don’t, you get errors about being “unable to push recovery image”.
  4. Start Unrevoked by running the downloaded .exe file from step 1.  This will run along and after a couple of reboots of your phone, you will have root.  If you look at the application list on your phone, you should see a new item called Superuser permissions.

I’m hoping this means that I’ll be able to install the new version of Android, Gingerbread, which is coming out soon.